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The first portion of this post was written on our way home from Germany and the latter part is more up-to-date.  :)

Hey folks-

Well, how about this for a story: I’m writing this post from aboard Air Force 2.  Well, actually it’s the plane that becomes Air Force 2 when Vice President Joe Biden is on board. Apparently, Hillary Clinton uses this plane a lot too.... and other heads of state from around the world.  One leader from the Middle East (can’t remember who) just used it to return to his country from the UN Summit after the Afghan ex-president was killed by a suicide bomber a few days ago.  That’s why the plane was across the pond.

So, I’m sitting in a big reclined seat, we got to go into the private room where the leaders hold meetings, and I got to sit up in the cockpit for about 20 minutes and see everything from the pilots’ perspective.  This is awesome!

So, you’re probably wondering how the hell we got this gig.  We arrived at Ramstein AFB yesterday afternoon to stay the night and catch a C17 back to McGuire AFB (where we are stationed) this morning.  We got to the terminal at 4:15 this morning only to find out that flight was canceled and the only other flight going to the states today was at 1:40 this afternoon.  So, we were definitely disappointed.  I told Christian that we should just go check back to the hotel and get some more sleep but he told me he didn’t want to leave the terminal “just in case something becomes available”.  Well, thank God we stuck around because about thirty minutes later, over the loud speaker, we heard an announcement for a flight leaving within the next two hours for Andrews AFB (about 2 hours from our house and right outside DC).  We were picked for the flight, checked in and got ready to board.  We then found out we would be flying on a C-32, and since none of us knew what kind of airplane that was, I Googled it and figured out we had just gotten a first class ticket on Air Force 2.  The area we’re sitting in is full of about 30 business/first class seats with leg extenders.  Then there’s  the private room that I mentioned and a conference room with two separate tables with big, cushy chairs around them. We get to walk all around the plane and the entire crew is dressed in suits, yet they are all active duty military.  It’s really a neat experience!  So, now, I’ll never want to fly a stupid commercial flight again!  haha  Oh, and Christian and I got to pick the in-flight movie.  haha  It’s just so neat b/c we will always remember this.  

Another thing that makes this flight really great is that Christian got to feel Max kick for the first time!  He was moving like crazy when we first took off so I told Christian to put his hand on my belly and he felt it.  So great!  :)

Oh yeah, we’ve also finalized his name.  It is Maximus Cullen Jenkins.  :)  Looks good, huh?  We’ve heard so much shit from people about the name Maximus but we both really love it.  Plus, it means “the greatest”.  Only the best for this kid.  

So, anyway, our trip to Germany was great!  We really didn’t do a whole lot of sight-seeing but we spent a lot of time with the family and ate some delicious food!  Christian’s grandmother cooks soooooo well!  Lunch is always the big meal over there so from about 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., she’s cooking.  And, seriously, it’s all so good.  Some of the stuff is super random for me as an American.  For instance, hamburger patties with onions and all kinds of stuff mixed in served with creamed spinach and scrambled eggs and then you mix it all together.  Random, right?  But, so yummy!  

The little bit of sight seeing we did was fun.  One day, we drove down the Rhine River to see the castles and we had lunch at the same restaurant where we got engaged two years ago!  It was great.  :)  Then, another day, we went to the International Auto Show in Frankfurt.  That was really neat.  We got to see all the new cars from around the world including Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini, concept cars from Audi, BMW and Mercedes and all kinds of other really neat cars.  It took us about five hours to see the entire layout of the show.  We also went into Frankfurt a couple days just to look around at everything we’ve seen before and we did a little shopping.  But, everything is really expensive in Europe for us because the American dollar still isn’t very strong.  It’s getting a little better but it’s still pricey to buy anything over there.  I think it’s about 35-40% more expensive.  For instance, if I buy something for 100 euros, I’m really spending about $135.  So, that stinks.  

All in all, we had a great time and we love Europe so much but I’m so ready to be back to the good ol’ US of A.  Since we’re flying into Andrews AFB, we’ll have to rent a car to get back home this afternoon.  We’re supposed to be going out to Western Maryland to see Christian’s dad this weekend so I’m not sure if we’ll leave later this afternoon or if we’ll wait until the morning.  I swear, the traveling never stops with us.  

So, anyway, I hope all of you have had a great past couple weeks.  The weather is starting to cool off everywhere and we’re getting into Fall up in Jersey!  

I’ll talk to you guys soon!

xoxo, 

Chrissi  

I'll finish up that previously written portion with a little more info about the flight we were on!  Towards the end of the flight, the flight crew allowed two people to sit up in the cock-pit for landing and Christian and another guy were chosen.  So, since Christian does that for a living, he told me to go so I got to sit in the cockpit for the landing of our flight.  It was a really neat experience!

Anyway, we did end up going to Maryland this weekend and now we're finally home.  I am SO DANG happy to be home for a while.  We're home for about two weeks then we head to New Hampshire for the weekend!  I can't wait for that.  We're going to the same party (clambake) we've been going to for the past three years and we're staying in a different B&B this time.  I'm really pumped!  A lot of our friends will be there and it's always a BLAST of a party!

So, that pretty much sums up everything going on on this end.  I hope all of you had a great weekend!

xoxo, 

Chrissi